Here's How YouTube Are Rewarding You For Making The Site Less Terrible

21 September 2016, 10:57

By Liam Dryden

"YouTube Heroes" is a new initiative to improve the the YouTube community, by rewarding users who volunteer to help clean up the site.

Let's face it. YouTube - for all its benefits, entertainment value, and ability to bring people together - can still be a bit of a problematic hellscape. Poor captioning on videos, offensive content and awful comments are just a few of the things on the site we need someone to fix. We need YouTube Heroes.

Thankfully, a new initiative from YouTube themselves is seeking to do exactly this. The most interesting part? They need your help. "YouTube Heroes" is a new community-sourced project that puts YouTube users in charge of creating "the best possible YouTube experience for everyone".

YouTube Heroes will allow volunteer contributors to earn points for doing things like adding captions to videos, reporting negative content and offering help to other users. The more points a Hero earns, the more levels they unlock. Higher levels will open up access to a bunch of exciting new opportunities and products for them to try.

"Heroes flag inappropriate content, add captions and subtitles to videos, and share their knowledge with other users on the YouTube Help forum, unlocking exclusive rewards along the way," reveal Google on the application page. "The YouTube Heroes program is offered everywhere YouTube is available."